<p>Hi all. I am going to go to a community college before going to a university. I know I want to do software engineering. Unfortunately, the community college does not have that. It only has computer science and just engineering. I plan to transfer after I get my associate's.</p>
<p>Anyway, my question is, which of the two, computer science or engineering, would benefit in getting a software engineering job/career.</p>
<p>If you want to work as a software engineer, you should major in computer science. Skip software engineering because most software engineering course (IMO) aren’t very useful and doesn’t compare to what you’ll learn on the job working as an actual software engineer on real projects.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen of grad salary surveys (here in California), software engineering majors tend to do better than computer science majors out of the gate. I’m sure it varies school to school though.</p>
<p>If you’re 100% sure you’re transferring why bother with the associates? Just do as many classes as you can that count towards the software enginnering major you’re aiming for at university.</p>
<p>There are only two public universities in California with a software engineering major that is distinct from the computer science major at the same universities (Cal Poly SLO and San Jose State). The curricula are very similar between SE and CS, but the SE major includes some additional SE methods courses in place of some additional CS topics courses. The additional CS topics courses are likely to be more useful than several additional SE methods courses (though a single overview SE course is useful for a CS major to take).</p>
<p>At San Jose State, the SE major appears to be significantly less selective in admissions than the CS major.</p>